1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a touch switch for an electrical appliance to be used on control panels thereof. The invention also refers to a capacitive touch switch comprising a capacitive flat sensor surface, a light source, a transparent cover provided over said touch switch and a printed circuit board connected to the capacitive sensor element.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the term “switch” we mean every kind of touch sensors which usually replace the traditional buttons in modern flush user interfaces.
Visual feedback activation of a touch switch control is simply provided by a light source, for example a light emitting diode (LED). Usually several touch switches are arranged, together with control board thereof, in a control panel.
To avoid optical interference between adjacent touch switches, light flux shall be conveyed from a light source to the related touch sensitive switch surfaces.
Opaque walls or light guide means are normally provided for this object. The use of opaque walls increases physical dimensions and renders the mounting quite complex.
Light guides can be used as mechanical support for the electrodes. Electrodes can also be made of transparent conductive material (such as indium tin oxide), located between the light guide and the lower surface of the transparent cover under which the touch switch is placed, with an increase of the overall cost of the control panel.
On top of the above illumination problems, there is the need of assuring a good mechanical connection between the touch switch and the transparent cover (usually a glass or plastic plate) under which the switch is placed. Up to now, for assuring such mechanical contact springs or conductive rubber elements have been used, which may increase the overall cost and complexity of the single touch switch, particularly as far as the need of assuring a good electrical contact of the springs is concerned. Moreover, technical solutions are known (for instance from US-A-2006/0243575) in which a support member, carrying electronic components, is separated from the transparent cover by a series of opaque septum-like partitions for creating physically delimited illumination channels. Even if such solution does not require light guides (light emitting diodes are placed on the support member directly), nevertheless it is quite bulky and of complex manufacturing.